43 - Proclus of Constantinople, Homily on the Holy Virgin Theotokos

Summary

A gem of early Christian oratory, Proclus’s first homily on the Holy Virgin draws on the emerging tradition of festal homilies such as we see in Basil of Caesarea’s Homily on the Holy Birth of Christ and Gregory of Nyssa’s Homily on the Savior’s Nativity¹ and addresses the crises of his day. Proclus was bishop of Cyzicus in 430 when he proclaimed this homily in the presence of his archbishop, Nestorius, who had been installed by Theodosius II on the episcopal throne in Constantinople. The occasion, it appears, was the feast of the Virgin that had recently been instituted in Constantinople for December 26. Defying Nestorius, Proclus unequivocally defends the language of Mary as Theotokos, which for him safeguards what he calls here the “coupling of natures,” divine and human, in Christ, the “incarnate God.” To name Mary’s role in effecting this union, Proclus draws on a trove of imagery at once exuberant and focused. Mary is, following the Cappadocians, the incarnation’s “workshop,” but also a bridge, a field, and a temple.